How Much Wickedness Can God Handle?

Intro

Kids on a car ride

“How much longer until we get there?”

“We’ll get there when we get there.”

This is a natural question I even have on a car ride

How much wickedness can God handle until He returns?

I would have already wiped everyone out

He’ll get here when He gets here

Scripture

2 Peter 3:8–13 “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

The Patience of God

God does not view time as we view time

God created time which means He is outside of time

“one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”

Is a day short or long? Neither and both

God is waiting for the harvest to be complete

God knows who will be saved and who will not be saved

He is waiting for that last person who will be saved is saved

God sees the wickedness

His judgment and wrath will come

2 Peter 3:15 “And count the patience of our Lord as salvation”

But When?

No one knows

Acts 1:6–7 “So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.”

Revelation 6:9–11 “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”

Traversing The Weeds

Premillennial

Jesus will come before the tribulation

Amillennial

Jesus will come after the tribulation

Postmillennial

The Church will physically reign on earth then Jesus will return

All of these views have their place in Orthodox Christianity

You can hold any of these views

What Is Certain

Jesus will return

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief”

There will be judgment

No one will escape Judgment Day

Heaven is real

Hell is real

How Now Shall We Live?

“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God”

Be about the work of God

After Matthew 24 Jesus gave several parables about being ready and active

After the disciples asked Jesus and He said no one knows the time, He reminded them of the work they need to do

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Live in hope

Don’t fear the end

We long for the new heaven and new earth